Sunday, April 21, 2013

Spanish rice or Mexican rice what ever you call it is one of my favorite food from Mexican cuisine. First time when I had it I thought it was more near to tomato bath in Indian style but there was some twist that is making it unique in taste, then I found out that the only difference between regular tomato bath in Indian style and mexican rice was just the medium in which the rice is cooked. To make Mexican rice they use Vegetable/Chicken broth but in our tomato bath we just use water. Also, they use different kind of vegetables such as celery etc., while cooking.

Method
Wash and soak the rice in water for 30 min. Later remove water and add vegetable broth, salt to taste (Note: If you are using the broth from market, then please be cautious while adding salt as the broth already contain some salt in it). Mix well and cook it till it comes to boil later add tomato puree, green peas & celery & herbs and reduce the flame and cook it (Cover the pot with lid and keep stirring in between making sure that rice is not sticking to the bottom of the vessel). Finally when the rice is done, add butter and mix well. Then the food is ready to serve. This rice tastes and smells wonderful!!!

I hope you like my recipe!!!! Please leave your comments before leaving!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Yesterday our home turned into a assembly house, because me and my hubby were debating about plastic use in our home. Would you like to know how we started the discussion, which ended as a debate? Here is the story....
My husband's lunch box is made of plastic and recently I learned a lot about the BPA (Bisphenol A), a chemical compound found in plastic ware that is known to cause different types of cancer. So, I replaced his plastic box with a pirex glass box, and now he keeps complaining that box is too heavy. My point is to serve the healthy and safe food to the extent I could and his point is that if the plastic is not safe to use then why they are selling in the market? I was not surprised by his question, because I know this would be the question that everyone will ask if you talk about BPA. Very lately the effect of this compound on the health came into light, and some countries like Canada banned the use of the plastic that contain BPA. Now, America bans baby bottles with BPA. And also you can find many water bottles and thermal flasks that say BPA free in the market. BPA is carcinogenic (Cancer causing) compound, it is known to show some hormonal effect on cancer cells, it will proliferate the cells very fast thus aiming the rapid spread of cancer in your body. Presently, lot of research is in progress on this compound, in our lab (in my college) we are testing on breast cancer cells. So, friends I highly recommend you to use the BPA free plastic ware and replace your plastic lunch box with a glass box and also make sure your water bottles are BPA free. I hope this post is helpful to you. Finally, I did not tell you about how we ended the debate, I showed him some research articles on BPA and now he agrees with me (Woo hoo!!! :)).

Method:
Take a large pot of water and bring it to boil with little salt, then add noodles and cook till they are tender. Then drain all hot water and add cold water. Heat 4tb of oil in a frying pan and add red chili. Fry it till they turn golden brown and remove them with the help of spoon. Now dump all the vegetables and saute till they turn little tender under high flame. Make sure you do not burn them, keep stirring. When all the vegetables are done add salt and pepper powder and add in noodles and mix well. Cook for 2min by continuously stirring them and serve hot. These noodles are simple to make and very delicious in taste. Try it and you will love it!!!